March 13, 2012

“Nearly one in 10 Alberta men believes it’s OK to physically assault a woman if she does something to make him angry. That’s one of the startling findings of a recent survey examining men’s attitudes toward domestic violence. And while the survey results indicate awareness about domestic violence is on the rise in Alberta, it also makes it clear the province still has a long way to go.”

And really, what about the people who think it’s okay but just lied in the survey? Sad. Domestic violence is not okay.

“Edmonton police are warning businesses in the area of a billing scheme that falsely uses the Yellow Pages directory. Police say the scheme targets businesses with an invoice that deliberately features the “walking fingers” logo of the familiar Yellow Pages.”

“A series of heartwrenching text messages is being used by the boyfriend of a car accident victim to warn people to pay attention when driving. Mathieu Fortin has created a Facebook page to get the word out in memory of Emy Brochu, who died Jan. 18 when her car slammed into the back of a tractor-trailer truck as it merged with traffic near Victoriaville, Que.”

“While Canadian pediatric dentists wage a war against tooth decay in kids’ teeth, British officials are pointing a finger at sugary fruit juices as the culprit. On Monday, the Royal College of Surgeons in the United Kingdom warned parents that feeding children large amounts of juice, in an attempt to make kids eat more fruits, is damaging teeth.”

“A new study by the conservative think tank organization the Manning Centre found that an overwhelming majority of Canadians find their public officials ‘unprincipled,’ ‘dishonest,’ ‘lazy’ and ‘incompetent.'”

“Women who are fed up with their jobs may be more likely to turn to food for comfort in times of stress, according to a Finnish study. The study, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that those who reported work burnout were also more likely to have a habit of “emotional” eating, or eating when stressed, anxious or down, rather than just hungry.”

Well I eat a lot but I wouldn’t say it’s because I’m stressed, I just love food, lol.

“Hamburgers and hot dogs are getting even more grilling. A new study indicates that eating unprocessed red meat (hamburger, pork, roast beef, lamb) and processed meats (bacon, hot dogs, bologna, sausage) may increase a person’s risk of premature death and raise their risk of death from heart disease and cancer.”

“Aside from the erratic weather Canadians across the country have endured these past few seasons, there are others signs that global warming is taking effect. Here are 5 things that warn of global warming heating up our neck of the woods.”

Also could be titled “5 signs that the end of the world is coming” lol.

“The mother of Julian Assange, the founder of the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, has warned that her son is being framed over sexual assault allegations.”

That was the first thing I thought when sexual assault allegations against him arose after all of the documents/information Wikileaks leaked. It makes a whole lot of sense if he is being framed for it. Corruption is everywhere…

“One Facebook engineer says she wants to get more women into tech. But why aren’t there any women on the company’s board? “You look in the room, you see all men, you assume that’s for men, not me… That’s why I think Facebook can make a difference. Teenage girls are using Facebook, and so I think it’s meaningful for them to hear about women engineers working at Facebook.” But there’s just one problem with this: Facbeook might have some women engineers — but it still doesn’t have any women on its board. In fact, just last month, numerous folks took Facebook to task for its board’s total lack of gender diversity. CalSTRS made a public demand for more women on the board, as did former Xerox CEO Anne Mulcahy.”

“On Friday, AOL notified more than 40 employees from its West Coast offices that they would be out of jobs by the end of the month. More cuts are scheduled in the coming weeks across AOL… The AOL Instant Messenger group took the deepest cut so far. A former AOL employee said the group was ‘eviscerated and now only consists of support staff.'”

Job loss is always sad but I feel like AIM is/was fading into irrelevancy. Same with MSN. Instant messaging on the computer in general, I haven’t signed into an instant messaging platform on my computer for years now! (That includes Facebook Chat – but I’ll bet Facebook Chat is one instant messaging service that’s actually getting lots of activity).

“Some people pursue celebrity. Others stumble into it as they are rushing off to bridge club. My 85-year-old mom, Marilyn Hagerty, a newspaper columnist, is in the latter category… The only downside of the world’s belated discovery of my mom is that she is too busy being interviewed on national television to play online Scrabble with me. Mom, if you ever get time to read this, it’s your move.”

“A town in Wyoming advertised as the smallest in the U.S. is up for sale next month. Buford, located between Cheyenne and Laramie in southeast Wyoming, has just one resident, Don Sammons, who has run the Buford Trading Post for the past 20 years, The Associated Press reported. Sammons told the AP he plans to retire and move on. The auction is set for noon on April 5.”

“In northeast China last Sunday, a 9-year-old girl gave birth to a healthy 6-pound baby boy… Sadly, she is not the youngest girl to deliver a baby, according to other published reports. Two girls in Peru, ages 5 and 8, are both on record as giving birth to children of their own.”

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Over the weekend Mike and I went with his dad and grandma to Edmonton’s own version of a Storage Wars Auction!

WATCH VIDEO OF THE EVENT, CLICK BELOW:

httpvh://youtu.be/1_WcRYhmMq4

Notes: Filmed on an iPhone 4S.

It was put on by Kastner Auctions. Mike’s family goes to a lot of Kastner auctions so they have had this Storage Wars event marked on their calendar for awhile. They were very excited about it and apparently so was half of Edmonton.

Huge turnout at Storage Wars put on by Kastner Auctions

Lol, just kidding but there was a LOT of people at this auction! Definitely in the hundreds.

I imagine the popularity surged after the wildly successful Storage Wars show which I have still yet to actually watch, but am told is awesome.

The line-up for the auction registration was massive and not everyone even ended up getting to register because the Kastner crew wanted to keep everything on time and it definitely would have started late if they waited to register everyone in line. They ended up saying if someone did bid and win and wasn’t registered yet, then they’d register on the spot.

The whole event felt really poorly organized. Mike’s dad said Kastner has never done an auction quite like this before and I don’t think anyone could have predicted just how many people were going to show up so you can’t really blame them. But everything definitely moved at a slow pace and the space to get to and view the storage units were very crammed. The phrase packed like sardines comes to mind.

The auction was split into two locations. There were five storage units at the first location in the storage hanger near NAIT and 11 units at the second location in the southside. I was only able to stay for the first location before I had to go to work but I have to say it was quite the experience.

This stuff sold for $175 at Storage Wars put on by Kastner Auctions

The first storage unit held – well – garbage. Really. Everyone was so unimpressed after slowly shuffling through to check it out and then shuffling away angrily muttering over the plastic wrap and random box held in the storage unit. Not the best unit to kick off the auction but despite this, the unit sold for $175. Unbelievable. There is no way the stuff in there could re-sell for $175, lol.

This sold for $300 at Storage Wars put on by Kastner Auctions

The second item up for bid wasn’t even in a storage unit, it was a pile of boxes stacked on top of one another, wrapped together. You could only really see what was on top (which to me didn’t look worth my money) – but it felt a bit more exciting than the first unit. The wrapped up boxes sold for $300.

This sold for $800 at Storage Wars put on by Kastner Auctions

The third storage unit was the most packed we’d seen yet but in my eyes, again, just looked like garbage. Not the case for others attending this auction! All of the tires and random whatever was in there sold for $800!! Maybe I would be less shocked about people spending this much money for what could really most realistically just end up being junk – if I had ever watched Storage Wars but since I’ve never – I was honestly flabbergasted that people were dropping this much cash for the contents of these units.

Unfortunately the third storage unit was the last I was able to look at before I had to leave for work but Mike and his dad got a look at the fourth unit and said it looked to be the best one:

Not sure how much this sold for, but it was the fourth unit at Storage Wars put on by Kastner Auctions

Mike’s dad even said he would have been willing to bid at least $500 for it. They didn’t stay to bid however, because they wanted to get an early start heading to the south side auction location and let’s be honest, there were SO many people at that auction there’s no way their $500 bid would have won. Especially if the last one sold for $800.

I apologize for the fairly blurry, fairly poorly composed photographs of the units. Like I said, the space getting to and from the units and amount of time allowed to view them were very limited. Plus there were just way too many people in the way to get any really good shots.

Despite being poorly organized, overall attending a Storage War auction is actually a lot of fun and really interesting! I would never in my life bid any money on any of that stuff (lol) but I can understand why people would (even though I still think it’s a waste of money). But the Kastner people were very friendly and once you got over the fact that there were so many people there and walking space was so small, it really does turn into a fun event.

I’m going to have to check out a Storage Wars episode now to compare! ;)

So have you seen the Storage Wars show? Been to a Storage Wars auction? Would you ever bid on stuff that could very well be junk (but could end up being a goldmine)? Let me know!

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ABOUT LINDA

My name is Linda Hoang and I am a social media/communications specialist based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I blog about food, social media, and Edmonton events. Thank you for visiting! For inquiries, contact hoang.t.linda@gmail.com